PRSRT STD U.S. POSTAGE PAID OMAHA NE PERMIT NO. 389
A publication of the Eastern Nebraska Office on Aging
New Horizons Celebrating 50 Years
September 2025 | Vol. 50 | No. 9
Peter Gros and Rae Wynn-Grant continue ‘Wild Kingdom’s’ six-decade long legacy By Leo Adam Biga A staple of American reality television from the early 1960s through the 1980s, Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom, helped put the insurance company and its home city on the map. It also helped inspire the small screen’s subsequent nature and wildlife programs. Originally broadcast by NBC, the show went into prime time syndication. By the late ‘80s no new original episodes were produced though it lived on in reruns and via personal appearances by its hosts. New iterations of the show emerged in the early 2000s before the latest version, Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom Protecting the Wild, launched in 2022. The legacy, award-winning show grew out of a friendship between former Mutual chairman and CEO V.J. Skutt, a wildlife enthusiast, and St. Louis zoologist Marlin Perkins. That connection first resulted in the ‘50s reality series Zoo Parade, so it only made sense when Wild Kingdom was conceived Perkins became host. He was soon joined by fellow zoologist Jim Fowler. Setting it apart from the start was the fact its hosts and production team went out into the field to document animals in their natural habitat.
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COURTESY PHOTO Perkins and Fowler traveled far and wide chronicling stories of wildlife, including endangered species, and efforts to protect and repopulate. In 1985 Perkins stepped aside and wildlife expert and educator Peter Gros teamed with Fowler for a few years before the show went into a long hiatus. After attempts to give it new life with different hosts, Mutual paired Gros with wildlife ecologist Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant for Protecting the Wild, whose third season on NBC debuts in October. “I especially like the fact I’m a link between the early shows and
Just as Fowler was much younger than Perkins when he became the latter’s wingman, Wynn-Grant is a Millennial and Gros a Baby Boomer. As a Black woman in a white, male-dominated space, she brings diversity and inclusion. Though not the first woman to serve as a Wild Kingdom host, she’s the first person of color to do so. “We complement each other very well,” she said of their pairing. “I think having the two of us of different ages, generations, races, genders, backgrounds strengthens the show. It demonstrates … that two people can be from totally different parts of life and be aligned and work together cooperatively for the common good, and have fun while doing it.” Said Gros, “What’s most important about it is we’re both on the same page, we both believe in the same things about conservation, wildlife education and affecting as many people as we can with knowledge.”
the more recent shows and personally have experienced the progress that has been made in so many locations with conservation,” said Gros, who called the addition of WynnGrant “a real asset.” Gros recently returned to a frequent Wild Kingdom haunt, Australia. “We were there for two weeks straight filming in different locations koalas, platypus, cassowaries FOUNDATIONS and sea turtles. What’s really excitBoth grew up watching Wild ing is that in 1985 we filmed a Wild Kingdom show on the Great Barrier Kingdom and credit it with inspiring them. Gros enjoyed the New Reef about Loggerhead turtles and York Hudson Valley preserve his I was able to dive in the Great Bar--Wild Kingdom continued on page 9. rier Reef again.”
Traveling by train can be easier than flying or driving cross-country Join, learn, capture today at the Omaha Camera Club
The Omaha Camera Club is an association of people who enjoy taking and making photographic images. The club has been around since 1925, and it is still going strong today. Learn more about the club on Page 16.
By Andy Bradley Contributing Writer ’ve enjoyed rock and roll since I was a kid. No, not the music. Although I’m good with that. I’m referring to the rhythmic dancing, bouncing and weaving experienced when exploring America by train. Omaha has offered cross-country train travel, more or less uninterrupted, since the late 1860s. In 1869, you could hop a Union
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Pacific Overland Route 1950s. That train still passenger train down exists, although the by the Missouri River National Passenger and jostle along at 25 Railroad Corporamiles per hour all the tion (i.e., AMTRAK) way to California or assumed control of its Chicago. In 2025, you operation from private can do the same, only railroaders, including in more reliable, faster, Burlington Northern, smoother and air-conin the early 70s. ditioned comfort. I humiliated my I’ve been a fan of mother on that first rail travel since the journey. A friendly first excursion with my train conductor, simply mom on the Califormaking polite convernia Zephyr between sation, asked me how Chicago and Omaha old I was. I answered in the late --AMTRAK continued on page 8.